Contrary to popular belief, personalisation goes beyond designing responsive emails, linking to individualised landing pages, integrating social media platforms, and even customising emails based on name, geographic location, age, gender and more.

There's a clear balance that needs to be achieved with email newsletters. A 2016 review by Econsultancy showed that three-quarters of companies agreed that email offers "excellent" to "good" return on investment (ROI), but then again, data from HubSpot acknowledges that 78% of consumers have unsubscribed from emails because a brand was sending too many.

A recent study shows that retail marketers share similar goals for 2017 -- and they're looking to meet these goals by stepping up marketing initiatives in a number of areas. An October 2016 survey from Yes Lifecycle Marketing found that in order to support these goals, respondents are most likely to prioritise channels such as email (68%) and social media (54%).

"Depending on your industry, I suggest to send emails bi-weekly, but this can change depending on what type of business you are. However, every other week I suggest spending 30 minutes to sit down, pick a good template, and give value to your past customers through email marketing."

Google has said it will appeal a court order to assist US law enforcement by handing foreign emails over to the Federal Bureau of Investigations in a case that could threaten the privacy of the company's users both within and outside the US. The pushback comes after a US court ordered Google to comply with search warrants for messages stored outside of the country.

Hackers behind the leak of emails in which David Beckham allegedly complains about being snubbed for a knighthood reportedly demanded EUR1m from the sports agency representing him. Police in Portugal, where Doyen Sports has an office, have been investigating the attempted blackmail for a year. Beckham was not the explicit target of the hack but was "caught in the crossfire."

Most sales emails sent by businesses are never opened by their intended recipients, according to recent research from HubSpot. The report was based on an analysis of data from more than 25 million one-to-one (i.e., not to a list) emails sent via the HubSpot Sales platform by firms in 28 different industries. Only 37% of sales emails are actually opened, on average, the analysis found.

As an email marketer, you want to make the best use of your time, your talents and your tools. After all, you don't have time to waste on busywork and repetitive tasks, do you? So automation deserves the top spot -- the number-one slot on our list, since it's probably the greatest efficiency tool email marketers have at their disposal.

Mark Runacus, chief strategy officer at Karmarama, has been named as the new chair of the DMA Board. As his tenure begins, Runacus said: "In a 'post-truth' world, the data-driven creative industries are best placed to lead a more authentic engagement with consumers."

Launching an email marketing program can be exciting. Too often, jumping right into adding names from business cards you collected and sending out promotional emails feels like the right way to launch your email marketing program. Not yet. Take one to two hours to document your "why" for email marketing. What is your purpose? What is your end goal?